Late Letters of Recs

[DarwinAG]

What happens if one of your writers submits a late letter of reccomendation? Is your entire application void? Stanford explicitly states it will not accept late submissions, but I have been reading and it seems like late letters are not uncommon.

[psychdork]

It depends on the school. Some schools are very strict about everything including letters. They might make an exception but I wouldn't be surprised if they won't. Others are a little more flexible when it comes to letters, mainly because they realize it is out of the applicant's control. For instance, last year one of my letters never arrived (it was a paper letter rather than online). When I noticed it was missing (probably a week after the deadline) I quickly emailed the graduate school and they allowed my LOR writer to email in her letter. I think some of it depends how quickly they start reviewing applications. Some start within a few days of the application deadline so they really can't be that accommodating.

[watson]

I would act as though it matters a whole lot. Pretend they won't accept a late letter and hound your letter writers to get it in on time. If someone doesn't you probably have some amount of leeway but you'll feel better not worrying about possibly getting cut for a really lame reason!